The Only Way Is ISIS: Reality TV-loving Islamic State poster girl who fled Britain with her son to commit terror in Syria reinvents herself as a social media influencer | Retrui News | Retrui
The Only Way Is ISIS: Reality TV-loving Islamic State poster girl who fled Britain with her son to commit terror in Syria reinvents herself as a social media influencer
SOURCE:Daily Mail
She's a convicted terrorist who fled Britain with her toddler son and travelled to war-ravaged Syria to join ISIS- in the hope that the youngster would one day commit murderous atrocities.
She's a convicted terrorist who fled Britain with her toddler son and travelled to war-ravaged Syria to join ISIS - in the hope that the youngster would one day commit murderous atrocities.
Tareena Shakil notoriously posted sinister images on Facebook of her son wearing an Islamic State-branded balaclava along with others of her brandishing an AK47 assault rifle and a handgun beside the terror group's flag.
Now the Daily Mail can reveal that after an extraordinary transformation the former Islamic State poster girl has taken to using social media in an entirely different way.
Shakil, who earned the nickname the 'Towie jihadi' over her love of popular reality TV shows, has reinvented herself - as a jet-setting influencer.
The former hijab-wearing radical - who was jailed for six years in 2016 for joining ISIS and encouraging acts of terror on social media - now poses in an array of glamorous Western outfits and appears to aspire to a lifestyle far closer to the catwalk than the caliphate.
Her most recent Instagram postings show Shakil appeared to have travelled to Paris over Christmas after previously heading to the bright lights of London for a shopping trip - posing for pictures as she tried on outfits at a swanky Chanel store.
Earlier in the year she enjoyed a balloon ride over a desert landscape and a get-away-from-it-all escape to a paradise island in Thailand where she went on boat rides and paddled with elephants on a private beach.
Shakil also managed to pack in trips to Rome, Romania and the Cotswolds while she had previously travelled to Egypt, Amsterdam and a ski resort in Albania.
Tareena Shakil pictured in a custody photo in 2016. After being jailed for six years, she has since reinvented herself as a social media influencer
Shakil pictured applying lipstick in central London. She has also travelled to Paris, Rome and the Cotswolds
She recently posed outside designer stores on her Instagram. Shakil's TikTok account has nearly 50,000 followers and over five million likes
Further images taken from exotic locations show Shakil horse riding along a beach and speeding along a zip wire above the trees in a rainforest.
On a TikTok account which has nearly 50,000 followers and has had more than five million likes, Shakil, who calls herself 'thatgirl.tamtam' posts dozens of videos largely featuring dating advice under the banner: 'You're safe here girls'.
Despite being single herself she explains what women need to do to find their 'soulmate' in short videos she frequently shoots from the inside of a sporty white Audi TT.
Meanwhile, on YouTube, Shakil posts longer videos focusing on positivity and sharing her 'mindset for success'.
In one of her most recent ones, Shakil told followers how she had developed her strength of character and resilience after overcoming 'horrific moments in her life'.
Without referring to her previous life as a jihadi she said: 'You need the bad times guys - the crying yourself to sleep at night.
'When you go through these things you are built up to be a fantastic version of yourself.
'There is not a situation that life can throw at me that overwhelms me - absolutely not. There is not a person that I could meet that makes me feel I have to do as they say.
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Images taken from exotic locations show Shakil lounging around on beaches and boats
Shakil, from Staffordshire, told her family she was off on a package holiday to Turkey in October 2014, but actually travelled to the Islamic State capital in northern Syria
Shakil sent photographs of her son in Syria, including one image showing him sitting next to an AK-47 machine gun. The caption of the picture describes him as 'Abu Jihad al-Britani'
'No one can ever have advantage over me. I don't do things that I don't want to do.
'I know how to get myself out of situations that I feel uncomfortable in. I am a young woman who lives alone. I live alone in a big city - I need to have them skills.
'The version of woman that I am today is the best version of woman that I could ever be. She was built and born when she went through them hard moments.'
She added modestly: 'Fiery women like myself, confident women like myself - we're not born like this. Absolutely not. I am like this because of a lot of trauma that has happened in my life. I am insanely confident.'
Shakil, a former health worker from Birmingham, was the first, and only, British woman to be convicted for terror offences after returning from the self-declared caliphate.
Passing sentence at Birmingham Crown Court in February 2016, Mr Justice Inman told her: 'Most alarmingly, you took your toddler son to Syria knowing how he would be used.'
The judge - who said Shakil had told 'lie after lie to the police and in court' - described how posing her son in an ISIS balaclava next to guns was one of the most abhorrent features of the case.
Though he said it was clear that she had been 'radicalised' following online conversations with prominent members of the terrorist group, Shakil had shown no remorse and had actively 'embraced' her role in 'providing fighters for the future'.
The 35-year-old also posed with her son wearing a black balaclava bearing the slogan of ISIS after secretly running away to Syria in October 2014.
Shakil, who calls herself 'thatgirl.tamtam' posts dozens of videos largely featuring dating advice under the banner: 'You're safe here girls'
Born to British mother Mandy and father Mohammed, who is of Pakistani background, Shakil grew up with her parents, two younger brothers and a sister in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.
Her mother has told how Shakil had a western upbringing - learning dance routines to Spice Girls songs in her bedroom, watching The Only Way Is Essex on television and taking a Saturday job at Morrisons to earn money for clothes and make-up.
Mandy once said: 'She could go out with her girlfriends and stay out late. All we wanted was for her to know right and wrong and to have a good heart.
'We gave her the freedom to enjoy her childhood and she did us proud. She was a good girl. She never gave us any trouble.'
She described her daughter as 'academic and popular'. Shakil became a school prefect before winning a place at Birmingham University to study psychology.
But she dropped out of university and would use her student loan to fund her misguided mission to become an Islamic State 'martyr'.
During her second year of studies she met a hairdresser whose Yemini parents had emigrated to Britain and they went on to marry.
She quit university to 'become a good wife' and quickly fell pregnant.
In one of her most recent ones, Shakil told followers how she had developed her strength of character and resilience after overcoming 'horrific moments in her life'
Despite being single herself she explains what women need to do to find their 'soulmate' in short videos she frequently shoots from the inside of a sporty white Audi TT
Shakil claimed the relationship turned abusive and she secretly began plotting her journey to Syria as she was 'looking for safety and peace within an Islamic state' where there would be no alcohol or drugs.
In October 2014 she told her family she was taking her 14-month-old son on holiday to Turkey before they helped her pack and saw her off at East Midlands Airport.
Instead of heading to the beach, Islamic State people-smugglers took her on a clandestine journey from Turkey into Syria - where she was transferred to the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa to be ideologically prepared as a prospective jihadi bride.
Shakil was pictured at East Midlands Airport with her toddler before they boarded a flight to Turkey en route to Syria
Arriving in the city, Shakil messaged friends saying that it was her 'responsibility' as a Muslim to kill 'apostates' and that she wanted to die a martyr and carry out Jihad,
She was placed in a house with other women waiting to be married to foreign fighters.
Shakil later told how conversations were 'often listened to' and the women were generally expected to behave 'in a certain way'.
She told how, at one point, men came to the house and bundled two 'unruly' girls into a van. They were never seen again.
Shakil later complained there were 'no police there for me to ring to help'.
She was arranged to be married to an American convert but is said to have plotted her escape after finding that life in an Islamic 'paradise' was not all that it was cracked up to be.
The city was under constant military bombardments from opposing forces and just weeks after arriving in Syria, Shakil took an unauthorised taxi ride to the Turkish border where she ran across open land and scrambled over a barbed wire fence.
Shakil was arrested at Heathrow Airport when she returned to the UK in February 2015.
After she was jailed the following year, mother Mandy said: 'I still can't understand how my lovely, sweet and bright child ended up in a war zone with my grandson. It is beyond my comprehension.
'She was such a lovely, smiley child. She loved to watch the children's programme Rosie And Jim, was full of energy and always had a smile on her face.
'I can only imagine that she was looking for happiness. Before she went to Syria, she was very unhappy because her marriage was a disaster.
'She thought she could find peace under sharia law - but when she got to Raqqa it was absolutely horrible. She hated it.
'I think she thought she was going to a place where women are treated very well, but she felt she had been tricked.
'Yes, it was wrong for her to take my grandson to such a dangerous place, but I still can't believe she's truly a terrorist. She was naive and gullible.'
Photos shown to the jury showed Shakil posing with a Kalashnikov rifle. She was notorious for posting sinister images to Facebook
In her police interview Shakil claimed she was kidnapped but later admitted wanting to start a new life
After serving half her sentence, Shakil was released from prison on license in 2018 - the same year her father and brother Tareem were jailed for three years for running a county lines crack cocaine gang.
Detectives said the pair, who had a string of previous convictions, took over the house of a vulnerable man and left him scared to live in his property as they raked in more than £3,000-a-day selling crack.
Shakil later told how she was 'ashamed' of her actions and had been through 'a long journey' of de-radicalisation.
She said: 'I regret every last thing in terms of my decision to run away to Syria with my child. I live with them consequences every day.'